in our many voices that the darkest days of our community shall not be the final word heard from ross. -- heard from us. we will care for one another with our love and our compassion. in those early hours of the crisis, it became clear to we clergy and faith leaders here in newtown that an initial community response would be needed, that we would need to come together. and so we asked our first select woman and superintendent if it might be possible for the clergy to gather the community here at newtown high school, to continue and to begin what will be for many along journey through grief and loss. we are not here to ignore our differences or diminish our core beliefs, which define our many different faith traditions, but to offer our love, care, and prayers to our families and our community. we wanted to offer a our voices in the form of words from our sacred text and prayers from the depths of our being. but we also wanted to gather together in silence. so, that is what we will do. we will have a time for sharing and for prayer, and also a time for silence in between, so that all o